Tagging new inside born lambs
- Thread starter hally
- Start date
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Could you use surgical spirits instead?
We use 50/50 iodene/surgical spirits to do navels
Lili
Member
- Location
- Aberystwyth hinterland
Surgical spirit. Dont smoke near it
primmiemoo
Member
- Location
- Devon
A dot of lambing gel on the point, and don't touch the point or hold the tag between teeth. Please don't use iodine, because it irritates the piercing wound.
Is that kinder on your hands than iodine as we have to wear gloves for that?
- Location
- Shropshire
It doesn’t stain but will dry them right out
- Location
- Southwest Scotland
Surgical spirits here
- Location
- Southwest Scotland
I dip them in a small glass dish and then try not to touch the point. It worked well last year as none of my management tags got infected.
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
On a very small sample of three calf tags, wiping them with a disinfectant wipe seems to do the trick. This follows a hellish job with joint ill and infected tags in the lambs last year (shepherd error, I think).
- Location
- Southwest Scotland
Mind one year I used dettol never again as quite a few of the hoggs got infected ears. Worth checking with the manufacturer first as what they would recommend for their tags.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Applying anything to the tags is like p*ssing in the wind imo.
The tag pierces the ear, creating an open wound. All disinfecting the tag does is stop the actual tag from introducing infection, you still have an open wound that can get infected from bacteria in the environment. Disinfecting that plastic point really won’t stop infection from getting into that wound over the next day or so.
I don’t disinfect tags btw, indoors or out, and can’t think of any ears getting infected as a result.
The tag pierces the ear, creating an open wound. All disinfecting the tag does is stop the actual tag from introducing infection, you still have an open wound that can get infected from bacteria in the environment. Disinfecting that plastic point really won’t stop infection from getting into that wound over the next day or so.
I don’t disinfect tags btw, indoors or out, and can’t think of any ears getting infected as a result.
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Some have mentioned it (and banding) causes joint ill? ( I don't disinfect either)
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The open wound could certainly let the bacteria that cause joint-ill in, but the wound is open far longer than the disinfectant on the tag point will last. The infection is from the environment, not the tag.
Thats what i wanted to hear.......less work
- Location
- North Yorkshire
gotchalivestock 1
Member
The tag is heavy for a new born lamb with a soft ear tissue
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I stick a pair of small, dirt cheap management tags in to the tiny thin ears of my Beltex and take a few seconds to get them where I would like the proper tags to go at 12 weeks when I wean them. If you think regular tags are big you should see the Beltex Society approved ones.
livestock 1
Member
Beltex have thicker lugs than a Swale
Cruelty in my opinion for very little gain. We put in 20-30 in a year in our pure bred lambs that we breed tups for our commercials from so we need to know parentage but we have loads more joint I’ll in these. All rest are tagged as they go to market legally you have until 9 months to tag them so why not wait until the ear has some strength
- Tags
- calf lambing management sheep udder